Piano BluesPart 3

I’m a piano player, not a pianist. I started as a pianist when I was eight or nine, but then I heard Honky Tonk Train Blues, or something. I heard James Booker and Professor Longhair, all the New Orleans guys, and it struck me. I had to sound like that. I never will, but I keep on trying. They’re the greatest piano players ever. The rhythm, the music. Spiritual music. A sound like that can heal a broken heart. And Ragtime. I love that too. Still piano players. All the styles are linked. You can hear Scott Joplin in every note that Booker plays. New life flows from old. The trace of the melody makes you smile, caught in a tearful night long ago. I was twenty when I left college and started to play piano in a bar each night. Not a great move prosperity wise, but a release for the soul. I met Emily at the bar. Close your eyes and you can see us in the hazy lamplight. xxx She sat with a group of friends and when I took a break they called me over. They left in turn until we were only two together fumbling over words, embarrassed to have been set up in such an obvious way. “We seem to have been thrust together. I hope you don’t mind,” I apologised. She laughed and ran her finger around the top of her glass nervously. “I think they’ve been plotting,” she Escort Göztepe smiled. “Oh, I’m sure they have,” I replied. “They enjoy doing that.” We talked for some time, swapping information, until it became easy and relaxed. I explained my life, and she explained hers. We came from two different worlds that were not so very far removed from one another. I had to return to the piano. “Will you wait until I finish?” I asked. “Of course,” she smiled. xxx The band took over later. “You can knock me down, but I’ll slow drag up again.” Emily explained her dilemma. Being single suited her, but there were times when she longed for security, for someone to be there. Sometimes loneliness crept up on her and took hold. It was wrapped around her tonight and she felt its heat. As she drank more, it radiated from inside. Her friends all had someone and she envied their touch and their kisses. But being single suited her. “I’m sorry,” she sighed. “You don’t want to hear my problems.” But I did. I wanted to know everything about her. I wanted to hear each soft note of her voice and begin to understand her. “I don’t want to be alone, but I can’t share myself.” “But you are sharing yourself,” I replied. “Then I just don’t Caddebostan escort want to be alone.” She swallowed hard. She was not normally so bold. She said she lived in a flat almost opposite the bar and I offered to walk her home. We left arm in arm into the hot night with the music fading behind us. xxx The night was blue, shaking with freedom, unending. Emily said that at that moment all lonely souls were looking to the stars for comfort. She said that pain could only be lost and irrelevant when thrown into such enormity. Tears were too small to be seen, and therefore they did not exist. The moon had large grey scars across its white face, and these demonstrated pain greater than one human heart could ever experience. But still the moon reflected light and sat in the midnight sky glowing above the neon city. Emily found her paucity reassuring; in the grand scheme of things her troubles were nothing. They did not exist. Jack disagreed. He believed in the value of tears and told Emily that none were wasted. Each desperate move was noted. Each single prayer was answered. He believed in order. When Emily questioned how billions of silent requests could be heard together, Jack replied that he had no idea, Bağdat Caddesi escort bayan he just knew they could. As they argued playfully on the balcony, the stars swung madly around the silver moon. The street below was empty but for the occasional couple, hot from dancing, making their way home arm in arm, high on wine and love and laughing. The sound of their chatter drifted upward. They whispered sweet nothings, teased, vowed, and gossiped ruthlessly. The girls wore summer dresses, and their men had collars pulled open and their ties pulled low. The night was filled with pretty people who walked side by side, bumped against each other, and laughed and swayed up the street until they disappeared from view. Emily guessed they made their way to homes, and then to bedrooms, and then to beds to fuck. She pictured them tugging at each other’s clothes, until they were naked, bathed in orange light, kissing madly. Jack lit a cigarette and watched her closely. He saw her eyes sparkle when she turned towards him, and her hands in descriptive animation. He loved the way she smiled. They stood leaning on the balcony rail and continued to watch the night. A cat prowled lazily back and forth in the shadows and sometimes called for its mate with an almost human cry. It fled when a distant train rattled through the city. They surveyed the windows opposite. Most were lit through net curtains which disguised the movement behind, and Emily said that this was exciting. The apartments held many varied lives and all the windows were thrown open against the warm night air.